Activists recruit Newport Coast

In area not known for politics, two citizens groups try to gain support for ballot measures to boost voter power.NEWPORT COAST -- In their efforts to qualify ballot measures for the November 2006 election, two citizens groups are storming the walls of voter indifference in the newest -- and often least politically engaged -- part of the city.

The Greenlight Committee, which promotes slow growth, and fiscal-control group Newporters for Responsible Government were gathering signatures on Saturday in Newport Coast as well as in several other locations in the city.

“There’s a different crowd here. It’s a more reserved crowd,” said Wes Whitmore, who was seeking signatures at Pavilions on Newport Coast Drive. He moved to the area five years ago from West Los Angeles and lives a stone’s throw from the store.

Newporters for Responsible Government is a new group that formed to protest the city’s plan to spend $48 million on a new civic center without a public vote on the project. The group’s ballot measure would require voter approval any time the city borrows more than $3 million.

In 2000 Greenlight had success in passing a law that requires a public vote on some development projects that previously had needed only city government approval. Now the group is making a second push, hoping to subject development plans to even stricter voter controls.

But it may be harder to rouse voter interest in Newport Coast. The area was annexed by the city in 2002, and not everyone there follows city politics. Whitmore had limited success Saturday, and Greenlight committee bigwig Phil Arst said he got only about 16 signatures for his measure.

“This is an area of the city that is not real heavily involved in city matters, but they care about traffic,” Arst said. “Most of the people here haven’t heard of Greenlight.”

Arst has already had to contend with setbacks: After initially filing notice with the city in September, he withdrew the petition to change some legal language. Then he learned a week and a half ago that because he failed to publish all three required sections of the proposal, he’d have to start over and the 400-odd signatures the group had collected wouldn’t count.

But the effort seems to be back on track. Arst needs about 6,000 valid signatures -- representing 10% of the city’s registered voters -- and he has until mid May to get them, he said.

By some accounts, Greenlight has been so successful that other places are trying to learn from its example. Diana Gordon of the Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City came to Newport Saturday to meet with Arst and observe signature-gathering efforts.

“We’re looking at how to have more citizen involvement in major land-use decisions in our city,” Gordon said.

Not far away, at Gelsons Market on San Miguel Drive, professional signature-gatherer Elizabeth Vitale was having a bit more luck. She got several people to sign in a matter of minutes, despite some voters’ unfamiliarity with the two issues.

Balboa Island resident Casey Brazeel said she doesn’t pay much attention to city politics, but the civic center project did catch her notice.

“I think $60 million or more is way too much to spend on a building,” she said.

Newport Beach resident Edward Indvik didn’t know about either of the ballot proposals before he signed, but he does think people should be able to vote on them.

“I believe in the process of letting the people have their say,” Indvik said. “Whether I agree or not is irrelevant. It’s going to be on the ballot.”

But the two citizen groups may yet face opponents tougher than ignorance or apathy. Arst expects a fight with developers, whom he predicts will spend at least $1 million to defeat Greenlight’s proposal. And some residents have complained that the citizens groups are trying to deflate the authority of the city’s elected officials.

“The main argument against us is, look, City Council is representing us and people should rely on representative government,” said Arst, who ran unsuccessfully for the council in 1996.

But he doesn’t believe the council is doing what residents want.

Gordon said her group will try to work through the system first, urging Santa Monica’s elected officials to limit traffic and density, and only rolling out a ballot issue if that fails.

For Arst, the breach with government has already opened.

“This is a last resort,” he said. “I don’t like standing out here.”